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There is a flower

Introduction

The wistful, unaccompanied There is a Flower, to words by the fifteenth-century poet John Audelay, was written in the mid-1980s at the request of the legendary organist and choir director of St John’s College, Cambridge, George Guest. It was first sung at an Advent carol service—a form of service which had become (and remains) immensely popular in the heady musical climate of Cambridge University, especially given that undergraduates leave for home several weeks before the season of Christmas truly gets under way. The opening solo recalls the talents of a particularly fine treble in the St John’s Choir at the time in question, whose name nonetheless seems lost to posterity.

Recordings

'David Hill's Advent programme imaginatively mingles antiphons, carols, hymns and motets. Favourites alternate with relative rarities such as Edward N ...'This recording holds some of the most exquisite choral singing I have ever heard. They must be one of the finest choirs in England. Not only is the t ...» More

A King’s Singers Christmas album comprising 24 tracks for each day of Advent. The album features celebrated carols as Away in a Manger, specially arranged for the group and other traditional carols performed in their original versions. Five ...» More

'It’s hard to imagine them better performed than by the award-winning British choir Polyphony' (The Mail on Sunday)'The performances by both choir and orchestra are ideal in tone, style and accomplishment … A Christmas treat' (Gramophone)» More

'What Sweeter Music' is a real festive treat, with a sumptuous collection of songs and carols for Christmas—touching on traditional favourites (Silent Night, Away in a Manger), modern classics (The Lamb, What Sweeter Music ...» More

Details

There is a flow’r sprung of a tree,
The root thereof is called Jesse,
A flow’r of price;
There is none such in paradise.

This flow’r is fair, and fresh of hue,
It fadeth never, but ever is new;
The blessed branch this flow’r on grew
Was Mary mild that bare Jesu;
A flow’r of grace;
Against all sorrow it is solace.

The seed hereof was Goddes sand,
That God himself sowed with his hand,
In Nazareth that holy land,
Amidst her arbour a maiden found;
This blessed flow’r
Sprang never but in Mary’s bower.

When Gabriel this maid did meet,
With ‘Ave Maria’ he did her greet;
Between them two this flow’r was set
And safe was kept, no man should wit,
Till on a day
In Bethlehem it could spread and spray.

When that fair flow’r began to spread
And his sweet blossom began to bed,
Then rich and poor of ev’ry land
They marvelled how this flow’r might spread,
Till kinges three
That blessed flower came to see.

Angels there came from heaven’s tower
To look up on this freshele flow’r,
How fair he was in his colour
And how sweet in his savour;
And to behold
How such a flow’r might spring in gold.

There is a flow’r sprung of a tree,
The root thereof is called Jesse,
A flow’r of price;
There is none such in paradise.

This flow’r is fair, and fresh of hue,
It fadeth never, but ever is new;
The blessed branch this flow’r on grew
Was Mary mild that bare Jesu;
A flow’r of grace;
Against all sorrow it is solace.

The seed hereof was Goddes sand,
That God himself sowed with his hand,
In Nazareth that holy land,
Amidst her arbour a maiden found;
This blessed flow’r
Sprang never but in Mary’s bower.

When Gabriel this maid did meet,
With ‘Ave Maria’ he did her greet;
Between them two this flow’r was set
And safe was kept, no man should wit,
Till on a day
In Bethlehem it could spread and spray.

When that fair flow’r began to spread
And his sweet blossom began to bed,
Then rich and poor of ev’ry land
They marvelled how this flow’r might spread,
Till kinges three
That blessed flower came to see.

Angels there came from heaven’s tower
To look up on this freshele flow’r,
How fair he was in his colour
And how sweet in his savour;
And to behold
How such a flow’r might spring in gold.

John Audelay (fl1426-1426)

There is a flower is one of the quintessential carols of John Rutter (born 1943), whose highly popular choral music includes many miniature masterpieces of the contemporary Christmas choral repertoire. It was composed for George Guest and St John’s College Choir and first performed by them in the Advent services of 1986. The fifteenth-century poem by John Audelay, a blind and deaf Shropshire monk, draws on the medieval imagery of the Jesse Tree that is frequently found in paintings and stained glass of the period. A characteristic of Rutter’s art is the strength of his melodic invention, as exemplified by the sheer charm of the carol’s main tune, as well as his masterly ear for texture, as for example in the final verse, where the men sing the main melody against the exultant ‘alleluias’ of the trebles and altos.

There is a flow’r sprung of a tree,
The root thereof is called Jesse,
A flow’r of price;
There is none such in paradise.

This flow’r is fair, and fresh of hue,
It fadeth never, but ever is new;
The blessed branch this flow’r on grew
Was Mary mild that bare Jesu;
A flow’r of grace;
Against all sorrow it is solace.

The seed hereof was Goddes sand,
That God himself sowed with his hand,
In Nazareth that holy land,
Amidst her arbour a maiden found;
This blessed flow’r
Sprang never but in Mary’s bower.

When Gabriel this maid did meet,
With ‘Ave Maria’ he did her greet;
Between them two this flow’r was set
And safe was kept, no man should wit,
Till on a day
In Bethlehem it could spread and spray.

When that fair flow’r began to spread
And his sweet blossom began to bed,
Then rich and poor of ev’ry land
They marvelled how this flow’r might spread,
Till kinges three
That blessed flower came to see.

Angels there came from heaven’s tower
To look up on this freshele flow’r,
How fair he was in his colour
And how sweet in his savour;
And to behold
How such a flow’r might spring in gold.

There is a flow’r sprung of a tree,
The root thereof is called Jesse,
A flow’r of price;
There is none such in paradise.

This flow’r is fair, and fresh of hue,
It fadeth never, but ever is new;
The blessed branch this flow’r on grew
Was Mary mild that bare Jesu;
A flow’r of grace;
Against all sorrow it is solace.

The seed hereof was Goddes sand,
That God himself sowed with his hand,
In Nazareth that holy land,
Amidst her arbour a maiden found;
This blessed flow’r
Sprang never but in Mary’s bower.

When Gabriel this maid did meet,
With ‘Ave Maria’ he did her greet;
Between them two this flow’r was set
And safe was kept, no man should wit,
Till on a day
In Bethlehem it could spread and spray.

When that fair flow’r began to spread
And his sweet blossom began to bed,
Then rich and poor of ev’ry land
They marvelled how this flow’r might spread,
Till kinges three
That blessed flower came to see.

Angels there came from heaven’s tower
To look up on this freshele flow’r,
How fair he was in his colour
And how sweet in his savour;
And to behold
How such a flow’r might spring in gold.

There is a flow’r sprung of a tree,
The root thereof is called Jesse,
A flow’r of price;
There is none such in paradise.

This flow’r is fair, and fresh of hue,
It fadeth never, but ever is new;
The blessed branch this flow’r on grew
Was Mary mild that bare Jesu;
A flow’r of grace;
Against all sorrow it is solace.

The seed hereof was Goddes sand,
That God himself sowed with his hand,
In Nazareth that holy land,
Amidst her arbour a maiden found;
This blessed flow’r
Sprang never but in Mary’s bower.

When Gabriel this maid did meet,
With ‘Ave Maria’ he did her greet;
Between them two this flow’r was set
And safe was kept, no man should wit,
Till on a day
In Bethlehem it could spread and spray.

When that fair flow’r began to spread
And his sweet blossom began to bed,
Then rich and poor of ev’ry land
They marvelled how this flow’r might spread,
Till kinges three
That blessed flower came to see.

Angels there came from heaven’s tower
To look up on this freshele flow’r,
How fair he was in his colour
And how sweet in his savour;
And to behold
How such a flow’r might spring in gold.